Summary: We host a debate on whether the so-called Islamic State is truly 'Islamic.' Jeffrey Goldberg explains why Jews are fleeing Europe. And are the TED Talks today's evangelical tent revivals?

ISIS: Driven by Revenge or Theology?

March 19, 2015

A recent article called “What ISIS Really Wants” has become the most read story every published in the history of The Atlantic. In it, Graeme Wood says that pretending that the so-called Islamic State isn’t actually a religious group, with a coherent theology, has led the rest of the world to underestimate its power. But it has caused an uproar online. One of Wood’s most thoughtful critics is Muslim scholar Yasir Qadhi, who says the problem with Wood's analysis is not what he says, but what he doesn't say: that the root causes of ISIS are "the hellish conditions Western powers created in the region."

Graeme Wood, lecturer in political science at Yale University and a contributing editor to The Atlantic aYasir Qadhi, Muslim cleric and assistant professor of religion at Rhodes College

To Jeffery Goldberg, the Jews of Europe are facing a revolting choice: the coffin or the suitcase. After 15 years of violent, anti-Semitic attacks in France, Britain, Germany and elsewhere, thousands of Jews are already fleeing for Israel and the United States. As Goldberg explains in the April cover story for The Atlantic, the perpetrators are often disenfranchised Muslim immigrants, looking for a simple explanation for their own anxieties.

Pictured: A memorial to the victims of the January shooting at the Kosher market in France.

The Church of TED

March 19, 2015

Megan Hustad can recognize "the cadence of missionary zeal" when she hears it. And this time, it's coming from the TED Talks, the widely popular, NPR-approved lectures that impart "ideas worth spreading." But for Hustad, the daughter of Christian Evangelicals, TED's airy promises delivered in darkened rooms across the country remind her a bit too much of tent revival sermons.

Amy Cuddy's 2012 talk on how body language impacts our self-confidence is one of the most popular TED talks to date. Megan is equally fascinated by and skeptical of Cuddy's talk--watch it for yourself here.